In late December 2011, a young male wolf from Oregon known as OR-7 made history when he entered California, making him the first known wild wolf in the Golden State in nearly 90 years. In the summer of 2015, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) shared the news that the state’s first resident wolf family, dubbed the Shasta Pack for the massive dormant volcano near where they were discovered, had settled into eastern Siskiyou County. In summer 2017, CDFW announced the presence of the Lassen Pack, which has had pups each spring since then, and is currently the only known family of wolves in California.
Defenders works with USDA Wildlife Services and CDFW to provide conflict reduction tools to landowners and livestock managers and help deploy them in areas where wolves and livestock overlap, which has been incredibly successful in reducing unwanted encounters. Requests for assistance with coexistence strategies have been steadily increasing over the past few years, and Defenders is answering the call by working on the ground with livestock producers and our agency partners to help keep both livestock and wolves safe from harm in northern California.
Wildlife and Wild Places
